Chapter 749: Someone in the Forbidden Land

Chapter 749: Chapter 224: Someone in the Forbidden Land

Shen Bai could tell with just a brief assessment that this figure of light and shadow possessed the power of the Celestial Spirit Realm.

‘Let me cut you open and see what you really are.’

Without the slightest hesitation, Shen Bai drew Cold Moon from his waist.

Blood-red Sword Qi roiled upon Cold Moon before bursting forth. A terrifying Sword Intent shot toward the heavens, cleaving the figure of light and shadow before him vertically.

Shen Bai didn’t hold back, because he had no idea what this mass of light and shadow truly was.

It was precisely because he didn’t know that this was no time to hold back.

This wasn’t some storybook; this was the real world. The protagonists in stories had plot armor and could afford to hold back, even capture anything they encountered alive. But Shen Bai only had one life.

He was extremely cautious when dealing with such things, especially since this luminous figure was a complete unknown.

As the blood-red Sword Qi erupted, the figure of light suddenly froze, as if it had been forcefully stopped in its tracks.

At the same time, Shen Bai saw the mass of light begin to disappear, fading away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It vanished with incredible speed. In the span of a single breath, the mass of light was gone completely, leaving not the slightest trace behind.

Shen Bai frowned and walked over to where the figure had vanished. There, he saw that at the heart of the light had been a glowing piece of jade.

The jade was already cracked, its once-flawless luster now slightly marred.

But none of that was important.

What was important was that Shen Bai sensed the same aura from the jade as he had from the figure of light.

After a moment of thought, Shen Bai reached out without hesitation and took hold of the jade.

His left hand was cloaked in the powerful white light of his Flawless Divine Soul Body, making it look like flawless white jade.

The moment he grasped the jade, he immediately felt a powerful vibration from it.

The vibration came on with extreme suddenness, and as it did, the jade unexpectedly shattered into a cloud of fragments.

‘What’s going on?’

Confusion welled up inside Shen Bai.

Just as he was mulling this over, he heard the sound of rushing air from behind.

At the same time, Shen Bai heard a voice.

“Who are you? Why did you destroy what was mine?”

When Shen Bai turned toward the voice, he saw a young, robed man approaching him, walking on thin air.

Although the young man wore a robe, he lacked even a hint of a refined or scholarly air.

This was because behind the young man were eight mechanical arms.

Each arm was a mixture of wood and metal, their combination possessing a strange, hybrid beauty.

Shen Bai sized up the young man, his gaze lingering on the eight mechanical arms. He found them quite novel.

“Instead of asking who I am, perhaps you should tell me who *you* are.”

This was Cangnan Dao, and they were currently within the boundaries of the Forbidden Land. Shen Bai was curious as to why this young man would appear here. And there was another thing—the young man somehow didn’t recognize him.

It might be an exaggeration, but there were very few Jianghu People in the entire Great Zhou Country who didn’t know of Shen Bai.

The man before him was one of them.

After hearing Shen Bai’s question, one of the young man’s mechanical arms moved in a surprisingly lifelike manner to scratch his head.

Then, he gave Shen Bai a strange look.

“My name is Ke Xiaoran. I’m a disciple of the Artifact Refining Sect. Who are you? And why are you here, in our sect’s territory?”

‘Artifact Refining Sect?’

Hearing this, Shen Bai only grew more confused.

He had gathered intelligence on Cangnan Dao before coming here.

Nowhere in that information had he ever heard of a faction called the Artifact Refining Sect.

The man had also claimed his sect was near the Forbidden Land, but the area had already been thoroughly investigated by members of the Observatory. They had confirmed that no major factions were present, not even minor ones. So how could he make such a claim?

Just as these questions arose in Shen Bai’s mind, Ke Xiaoran suddenly vanished from before him. It was as if he’d never existed, dissolving into a shimmer of light before disappearing completely.

‘What is going on?’

Shen Bai’s confusion deepened.

He activated his Void-breaking Red Eye but found no trace of Ke Xiaoran leaving. It was as if the man had never existed at all.

Circulating the Qi within his body, Shen Bai then performed the Infinite Divination Skill, hoping it could unearth some clues.

But when Shen Bai attempted the calculation, all he sensed was a tangled mess, proof that the Infinite Divination Skill could find nothing.

‘No clues to be found, and the divination yields nothing…’

After thinking for a moment, Shen Bai decided not to linger in this place. He would first return to the camp in the Forbidden Land and ask the people from the Cangnan Dao Observatory.

After all, they were the locals; they would know more about the local factions than he did.

A final look around revealed nothing else unusual.

Shen Bai executed Divine Thousand Miles and vanished in a flash.

…

「Inside the camp tent.」

When Shen Bai finished recounting his experience, Jiao Hong was stunned speechless, unable to react for a long while.

Shen Bai looked at the dumbstruck Jiao Hong and frowned, realizing he clearly didn’t know anything about this either.

“Could it be a faction from outside Cangnan Dao? But then why would he claim this very place is the location of the Artifact Refining Sect?”

Jiao Hong snapped out of it at the question and shook his head. “To be honest, Lord Shen, I’m not sure either. But I can confirm one thing: even if this weren’t a Forbidden Land, there are no sects or factions here.”

“And regarding the figure of light you mentioned, Lord Shen, I just asked the members stationed here. None of them have encountered it.”

“How strange.”

Shen Bai rubbed his chin. “This place is just wilderness. The Artifact Refining Sect doesn’t exist here. And none of you saw the figure of light… Could it be that the man never existed at all?”